Bear Lake is a small stillwater in the Lower Arrow Lake watershed of the West Kootenay, roughly 13 hectares of surface water carrying rainbow trout. It was a steady put-and-take fishery for a generation, then the plants stopped.
The water
The lake covers about 13.2 hectares, sitting in the Lower Arrow Lake drainage on the BC lake gazetteer under the water body identifier 00359LARL. No bathymetric survey is on record for this specific lake, so depth and drop-off structure are unconfirmed; go in expecting a small, shallow-leaning stillwater until a survey or a local report says otherwise.
Stocking
For an angler judging whether the drive is worth it, the release record is the honest fishing report here. The Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC and its FIDQ predecessor recorded 27 releases of rainbow trout between 1983 and 2009, totalling 107,500 fry, mostly Pennask strain out of the Pennask, Premier and Beaver hatcheries. The last plant went in on 2009-09-30: 4,000 Pennask-strain fry. Nothing has been stocked since.
That multi-decade gap changes how the lake should be read. This was never a wild fishery, so any rainbow trout present today are either long-lived holdovers from the last plants or the product of natural recruitment in the lake, not a fresh season's stock. Confirm current status locally before planning a trip around it.
The fishing
General stillwater tactics fit the lake type: chironomids over the shoals in spring, leech and attractor retrieves along any drop-offs as the water warms, and standard indicator or troll work to find depth. That is a read on stillwater fishing in general, not a confirmed local pattern, since no on-the-water reports have turned up for this specific lake.
A lapsed program, not a dead lake
Access and the rules
No launch, road or parking details have been confirmed for Bear Lake. Treat it as a regulation-and-access check before committing a day: verify the road in, any private land or seasonal closures, and the exact Region 4 rules that apply to this water.
